The 2018 Silicon Valley Innovation & Entrepreneurship Forum (SVIEF) was held on September 29-30 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. This year’s event, themed “Converge and Exchange” brought together more than 10,000 attendees to develop business partnership opportunities between US and Asia-Pacific companies.

The conference featured ten tracks including a Youth Leadership Summit, AI+ Venture and Investment, STAR Startup Competition, and the Global Blockchain Summit. The latter track focused on applications of blockchain technology to solve real world problems beyond the cryptocurrency space.

As investment in alternative coins has cooled this year, many of the consumer-facing blockchain projects have faltered. According to blockchain researcher Diar, the number of successful ICOs is nearing a one-year low. In the B2B space though, applications of the technology are still garnering attention.

In the energy sector for example, peer-to-peer trading enabled by blockchain has the power to accelerate the global development and adoption of renewable energy. One SVIEF participant, EtainPower, aims to do just that.

“In the bear market, it’s a good opportunity for projects like EtainPower, which has real applications and revenue supporting its ecosystem,” said the company’s founder and CEO Steven Dong. “Only projects who can connect blockchain technology with the real society will survive from the crypto winter.”

The startup allows investors all over the world to contribute to renewable energy projects, which often have a hard time securing funding for their upfront costs. The trading platform is tokenized, allowing anyone to contribute and earn credits toward their own power purchasing needs. By bringing transparency to energy generation and distribution, the startup hopes to create accountability within the industry and build consumer trust.

While EtainPower’s ecosystem is built for P2P funding options, it has raised primarily from institutional investors, including Gobi VC, Gorun Energy, Blue Rising Capital, Shuyin Capital, Sell Capital, ARCHina Capital Partners and DeepBrain Chain Foundation. Industry-wide, traditional VCs have filled the gap left by declining ICO success this year. PitchBook reports that in just three quarters of 2018, VC investment on blockchain projects is already 280% ahead of the whole of 2017.

Conferences like SVIEF and this week’s San Francisco Blockchain Week event series provide an opportunity for blockchain projects to exchange ideas, meet potential partners and connect with VC and angel investors. EtainPower to engage in in-depth discussions with other industry leaders, as well as prominent investors like Tim Draper.

Dong participated in a panel discussion on IoT, AI and Blockchain along with fellow founders, Allan Zhang of DxChain and QuarkChain’s Qi Zhou. The three industry experts exchanged opinions on how IoT, AI and blockchain, each disruptive technologies on their own, create a powerful combination. If AI is like the reasoning and decisioning part of the human brain, IoT is the nervous system, sensing and connecting devices in a unified network. Blockchain, they argue, plays the essential role of memory – it creates a secure and indelible record of transactions.

EtainPower is making use of all three technologies in their P2P renewable energy trading platform. First, an IoT enabled power grid will monitor energy production from renewable energy systems and usage by end consumers. Smart grid technology uses AI to balance the load on the distribution system, smoothing out power surges and dips that are common with renewable energy sources like wind or hydro power. Finally, all energy transactions are recorded on the blockchain for a consistent and accurate ledger of purchases.